Always Loyal
by Faithie
Summary: Hinata realizes that Naruto will never be hers, even after two and a half years, and and old friend comes to console her in her time of need...slipping up about this own feelings in the process. KibaHina Oneshot.


_Naruto, Hinata, Kiba, Akamaru, and even Sakura belong to Masashi Kishimoto._****

Always Loyal  
Chapter one: Tears in a Forest

It had been two and a half years. Two and a half long years that she had spent bettering herself, taking hits, perfecting her techniques, maturing, growing...All for him. All for one man that she hadn't been able to speak to earlier. She had tried, but unfortunately had panicked and then fainted in frustration. However, now she was ready and stood beside a nostalgic tree, watching him train just as she had so long ago. And she was going to speak to him. She had even made some ramen! She was going to offer him the meal that she had prepared with love, sit with him, watching him eat it, and finally tell him how she felt and how hard it had been when he was gone.

That had been the plan, at least.

Hinata's long, black hair shimmered like the moonlight, and her delicate yet strong body shook in silence, like the leaves as the wind blew through them. She hid behind a tree trunk as her white, pearly eyes filled with tears, unable to tear away from the scene unfolding before her. There, directly in front of her, her golden-haired, long-awaited love was standing. And next to him was a familiar pink-haired, green eyed beauty. Sakura. Gorgeous, intelligent, powerful...Everything Hinata wanted to be. Everything that Naruto wanted. And now he had just told her exactly that. He had admitted to Sakura that he had feelings. Two and a half years had given him enough courage to speak.

And those two and a half years of growing caused Hinata's eyes to brim with tears, and the ramen that she had worked hours on, that she had made from scratch, to drop to the ground. She turned, ignoring Sakura and Naruto's surprised gasps, and ran. Leaves picked up under her feet, giving loud rustling sounds, and the branches and grass crunched beneath her, but she didn't care. All she could hear was a loud, shattering sound within her. The sound of her own heart breaking. The pain was unbearable. She needed to get away...Far away.

Finally, after a whole hour of running, she collapsed in a different part of the forest, her knees giving way due to her inability to breathe properly. She was choking on her own tears, sobbing uncontrollably, and braced a hand against the trunk of a tree that stood in her old, Team Eight training ground. The place where she had felt all sorts of pain before but nothing nearly so extreme. As the memories of all her training sessions came back, of all the bruises, the cuts, the falls, the blood...She realized she hadn't ever cried here before. She had been strong. Naruto had given her courage to strive to be better. Today, she had wanted to show him how much she'd improved, how she was finally almost worthy of him...

But she had forgotten that Sakura, too, had been getting better during that time. Growing more powerful and desirable than ever. Hinata had been silly to think Naruto would even look at her. She would never be as good as Sakura. Never so beautiful, so intelligent, so powerful, so confident...

Hinata's tears eventually began to slow and she was beginning to catch her breathe. She gave a bitter smile, wiping away some of the liquid on her face. It was for the best...Sakura deserved Naruto. She was better. She was the right choice. And with her, Naruto would be happy. And that should have been enough for Hinata...Just to have him happy. He could continue to inspire her, even if she could never be good enough to be seen the same way by him. Hinata would still strive to be better. So one day, he might see her, and nod with approval, even if it was Sakura who he turned to a moment later, to look at with love and desire in his beautiful eyes...

"Eh? ...Hinata?" A shocked and familiar voice behind Hianata asked right before she heard the sound of four paws landing in the soft grass. She recognized them at once as Akamaru's. And the voice had belonged to the creature's master.

She quickly turned away, trying to hide her face from view. "Oh, K-Kiba-kun!" She stuttered. "You're out rather late, aren't you...?"

"Hinata..." he ignored her question and walked over to her, Akamaru whining worriedly behind him. Seeing that she was hiding something, Kiba kneeled down, putting his hand boldly on her cheek before pulling her face towards his. Hinata whimpered when he did so and shook mildly, turning red, embarrassed that he had caught her crying.

Kiba's thin eyes filled with worry instantly. Seeing her beautiful, innocent eyes filled with tears caused a bolt of electricity to run right through to his heart, numbing him partially with fear that she was hurt, while setting the other part on fire with anger towards whatever did this to her.

"Hinata, what's wrong?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

"It's nothing, Kiba-kun..." She muttered, looking away shyly. She didn't like her dear friend seeing her so. He always worried too much about her, and she felt like enough of a failure without being reminded of it every time she looked into his eyes.

Kiba growled to himself, realizing the reason instantly. _Naruto_...That name had been an annoyance to him ever since the Chuunin Exams. He had lost due to pure luck on Naruto's side, and it had pained him to see how worried for that stupid blonde Hinata had been the entire time. At the time, it had been mere annoyance at the fact that she was cheering against her own team. But when Kiba thought about it now, his veins boiled with jealousy instead.

Kiba had watched Hinata grow stronger every day, now more confident, better at what she did. She had begun so shy, so weak. But she had worked on her strengths instead of accommodating to another style, and she had come out of her shell, telling more people of her true, once-hidden feelings. And yet, she had never stopped worrying about everyone. She had remained gentle, kind, caring...Always the first to make sure everyone on her team was alright, always there to bandage up a wound, always the first to listen if someone had a problem...

It was because of this that Kiba was now infuriated with Naruto. The blonde moron had a wonderful girl always watching him, and yet he did nothing. He ignored her and managed to oversee the fact that she acknowledged him the very way he had always wanted to be acknowledged when he was still young. The fact that he inspired Hinata to grow more powerful. That he inspired her to show more of her feelings. And he even managed to ignore how she was willing to do absolutely anything just for one kind word...

"It's Naruto, isn't it?" Kiba uttered before he could stop himself. He felt Hinata's cheeks grow red beneath his palm, and his insides pulsated with a second wave of rage, now that his assumptions had been proven correct. "...What'd that guy do?"

"N-Nothing!" Hinata instantly shouted in Naruto's defense, as she always did. "I just...he was with Sakura-san when I was going to talk to him. I suppose overhearing him explain his feelings to her caused me to behave immaturely...I had believed I was something I'm not. Thankfully, I realized my mistake before I made a fool of myself in front of Naruto-kun..."

"Tch," Kiba turned away, glaring at the ground. He loathed the very way she uttered that name. She said it so kindly, with such love and longing in her voice... Kiba had secretly longed for her to say his own name with the same tone for a long time now...

"...He's an idiot."

Hinata's head shot up instantly in shock, staring at Kiba. He hadn't been so unkind in a long time.

"Wh-what!"

"I mean it..." Kiba said quietly, his voice suddenly changing from harsh to almost disappointed, causing Hinata's momentary bristle of anger to subside.

"Hinata..." He began quietly, keeping his eyes locked onto the ground, his own face turning slightly crimson. He couldn't stand her thinking so badly of herself. Kiba knew, deep down, that she would be back to herself in a matter of days. He knew that he could stay quiet and remain her loyal friend. Always there to talk to, to train with. He could stay quiet and comfort her now, make a joke, see her wonderful smile, and call it a night. But Kiba couldn't bring himself to. Naruto had admitted feelings for Sakura. If she didn't accept him, Naruto could wise up and go for Hinata. And the protective, territorial instinct within him simply wouldn't allow that. He had to take his chance. Now.

"You always watch him, and he's always ignored you. He's an idiot if he can't see someone as wonderful as you for who you are. I'm sick of you always getting upset because of someone like him! ...Why...Why does it have to be him, Hinata? Why _him_?" Kiba's eyes burned into hers, his voice cracking with pain with the last bit he spoke. The hand on her cheek pulled her face closer to his. His other hand took one of her gentle, pale ones, noting that it was now shaking with surprise. He didn't care.

Kiba gently pulled her face closer to his, listening as her heartrate double in speed, noting how her breaths became short gasps. His lips were mere inches from hers...

It took every ounce of his self control not to kiss her. To silence Hinata of all of her kind words for Naruto. So he would always know that he took Hinata's first kiss, not that blonde-headed freak.

"...K...K-Kiba-kun...?"

But as she weakly choked out his name, filled with fear and shock instead of love and wanting, Kiba pulled back, letting go of both her hand and her cheek, turning his back to the white-eyes princess to instead face his faithful hound, who had been staring in mild surprise.

He couldn't do it. He couldn't kiss Hinata. She wanted her first kiss to be from Naruto. And Kiba couldn't take that away from her, no matter how sorely he wanted to. He was too loyal to her. Too aware of how she'd secretly hate him for it.

"Sorry..." Kiba muttered, as he leaped onto Akamaru's back, feeling his face burn. He had been stupid. That had been a mistake. A huge mistake. "Let's go." He added quickly, and with a bound, he and Akamaru were gone, leaving Hinata alone again with nothing but a soft summer breeze.

"Kiba...kun..." Hinata managed to choke out quietly, watching his and Akamaru's figure disappear into the night. She slowly leaned back until her back made contact with the tree, too shocked at what had happened to know what to think about first. Kiba...He had almost kissed her. He had been angry at Naruto for not noticing her.

Had she been doing to Kiba what Naruto had been doing to her for so long...?


End file.
